Geothermal heat pumps have been developed that extract heat energy from soil and transfer the heat energy from the soil into a residential or commercial building and thereby heat the building in cool ambient conditions. The geothermal heat pumps can also be used to transfer heat from the building to the soil and thereby cool the building during periods of high ambient heat. A significant cost in installing such geothermal heat pumps is the cost of installation of the heat exchanger in the soil. Various methods currently in use include boring a hole in the soil and inserting a geothermal heat exchanger into the bore hole. The bore hole may further be filled in with grout. Other methods for installing such geothermal heat exchangers include digging a trench, laying the heat exchanger in the trench and then backfilling the trench.